DANIEL TYLER GOODEN / L’Observateur / December 20, 2000

ST JAMES – The fields are beginning to look bare as the sugar cane harvest starts to wind down for it’s traditional end of the year deadline. The harvesthas been pretty good, though it won’t beat the record breaking crop of last year. The Louisiana Farm Bureau stated that outside of the recent threeweeks of rain, the harvest was almost flawless.

The St. James Sugar Cooperative expects to net around 623,000 tons ofsugar. Last year’s record crop brought in 633,540 tons.”We had more acres produced than last year, but overall we’ll have about 5 percent less sugar than last year’s crop,” said Lenny Waguespack, plant manager. The expected difference for the state is about 10 percent lesssugar, Waguespack added.

The recent rain has slowed the harvesting down around St. James Parish.Some farmers are leaving the crop in, hoping the fields will dry out. Thecloser to the new year, though, the more risk farmers take in harvesting their crop. If the temperature was to drop below freezing, especially for along period of time, the cane left in the field would be damaged. As thetemperature rises the cane thaws and begins to quickly sour. At that pointthe cane is good for making molasses, but not much else, said Waguespack.

The St. James Sugar Cooperative is expecting to finish its sugar caneprocessing in time for Christmas. Other plants in the state are planning toclose around the new year, though some are staying open until the middle of January, said Waguespack.

The closing date of the St. James Sugar Cooperative depends on the amountof cane the farmers predict they’ll have. Planning to close the plant byChristmas, Waguespack calculates how much they’ll have to process and how many days it will take. Essentially the closing date is decided and workedbackwards, planning the processing to determine when the plant will open, said Waguespack.

Overall, though the sugar content in the cane is little less this year along the river, it’s been a good year for the sugar cane.

The prices for sugar are higher now than they were over the summer.

“Everyone remembers this summer when prices dipped into the 18 cent range. Now they’re up past 21 cents,” said Brian Breaux, associatecommodity director for the Louisiana Farm Bureau.

The USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp. is sitting on 297,000 tons of sugar,which is keeping the prices up. The sugar is used as collateral ongovernmental loans to farmers. “Long-term it’s still a dicey situation, withstock levels higher than needed to keep the market in balance. For the timebeing, prices are looking good,” said Breaux. The 297,000 tons of sugar isfrom Florida farmers. Louisiana farmers haven’t had to enter into such anarrangement, said Waguespack.

Burning off the sugar cane fields has decreased this year, according to the Farm Bureau. Many of the farmers underwent training to receive a burnmanagement certification through a course put on through the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

“We’ve had a lot of cane that was not burned this year,” said Breaux. Thecertified farmers have been more conscious of weather conditions and the appropriate times when burning could be done.

About 1,300 growers and farm managers went the program this year, improving conditions in many communities, said Breaux. All the farmers plusmany of the workers that bring their cane to St. James Sugar Cooperativehave received the burn certificate, said Waguespack.

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